They say first impressions are the most important. In general, I would agree with that statement, however for China, my first impression meant very little to me in the grand scheme of things. My first glimpse of China was the city of Shanghai (pop. 18 million). Luckily we arrived during the Chinese New Year, so the streets were much quieter as many people spent time with their families and celebrated the new year by eating dumplings and setting off fireworks. When I got there I was expecting pollution, crowds of people and chinese characters everywhere. My expectations were met- It was difficult to see more than some hundred feet because of the "mist" (aka smog)- and there were certainly lots of people, however what I was not expecting was the amount of trash that collected on the streets and people peeing on the street... I saw one too many male genitalia. It was weird to see so many people on the poorer side living in such a futuristic style city.
In contrast to the busy life of Shanghai, I was also fortunate to travel to a slightly smaller city, Suzhou. It is famous for gardens (basically rock mazes) and a silk factory which we got to tour. Making silk is much more difficult than one might expect, having to boil the silk cocoons, find the string to collect the thread.. All by hand! The real silk material was heavenly to the touch, and I was able to get a silk duvet for fairly cheap! Can't wait to use it in my new apartment when I get back!
So my first impression of China was that it was a dirty country, but my views quickly changed as I was able to travel more around the country.
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